Green car subsidy in gear?

[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent="yes" overflow="visible"][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type="1_1" background_position="left top" background_color="" border_size="" border_color="" border_style="solid" spacing="yes" background_image="" background_repeat="no-repeat" padding="" margin_top="0px" margin_bottom="0px" class="" id="" animation_type="" animation_speed="0.3" animation_direction="left" hide_on_mobile="no" center_content="no" min_height="none"]The UK government is set to announce plans for a £2000 per vehicle subsidy for consumers who choose environmentally friendly cars like the G-Wiz which currently sells for about £8000. The subsisdy will be used to promote a 'green car' culture to replace petrol guzzling cars - hopefully in particular the 4x4 chelsea tractors which seem to be (badly) driven by middle aged men and women all over the UK blocking up town centres and rural areas alike.  Is it just me or do 4x4 drivers (of the shiny never been to a farm type) lack all basic skills, common sense, intelligence and manners? Whenever I see a blocked lane on a motorway the long frustrated tailback it is invariably fronted by a numpty in a 4x4 child killing heap of metal blissfully unaware of what's behind them (or if they are aware, to ignorant to care).  Hey ho,  rant over, and for once I have to applaud this this scheme which will underpin Gordon Brown's aim to make the UK a world centre for the use and production of electric cars with several cities planning to offer re-charge points in a similar way to Westminster.  The UK's car culture is not going to dissapear overnight and without a viable public transport network we have to look at improving our cars, even if 9% of the UK population use mobile internet services like Twitter when driving, 45% send texts and 37% say they cannot ignore phone alerts when driving - one Twit posted "I am driving with my knees peeling and orange - probably not the safest thing to be done". Ho hum, I feel another rant coming on ......  but with greenhouse gas emissions from cars producing a substantial percentage of the UK's greenhouse gas emissions its something we have to tackle, and the message is this - the issue of cars and personal transport need to be tackled quickly - but with viable and socially acceptable solutions.UPDATE: what a surprise - it seems all is not quite what it seems with this new announcement and that current eco-friendly cars wili be ineligible for grants - and in fact the first grants (up to £5000) wull not be available until new models come onto the maker - the earliest (the Vauxhall Ampera and possibly the E Smart) will be in 2011 - 2012. The Department of Transport is still debating the minimum standards for electric cars to qualify and ministers want cars with mass market appeal in terms of range and speed.  The DfT says that £230 million would be available for electric car grants and a further £20 million for electric charging points but critics pointed out that the limited sums for recharging points would not be sufficient and the grants, even when they are available, would cover only 50,000 cars (well short of the tens of millions currently available to UK drivers).See the Times  £5,000 bung for electric car you can't buy  17/05/09[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]